Sunday, December 09, 2007

Roth Käse USA Ltd., a Wisconsin-based maker of European-style cheeses, offered the highest bid Saturday at a court-ordered auction. The company bid $285,000 for seven hilly acres and the improved cave below, which for several years was home to a clandestine marijuana farm.

The company's representative at the auction, Chuck Olson, offered little comment on the purchase after the auctioneer named him the winner.

"They'll make an announcement shortly," said Olson, who smiled widely after a half-hour bidding volley between him and another would-be buyer. Asked what the company intends to do with the property, he replied coyly, "Make money."

Unlike the previous owner's business, Olson said, the cave's new enterprise will be entirely legal "in a tasty way."

The auction was held in what had been one of the underground growing rooms in a previous marijuana operation. About 170 people, the majority of them spectators, came to watch the court-ordered sale unfold about 90 feet below ground.